The string of deaths that have haunted the Kennedy clan is well-known. One of the most tragic was the death of Michael Kennedy, the father of Kyle Kennedy, the RFK granddaughter who has now died herself at the age of 42.
News of Kyle’s death broke on October 20, 2026. That has renewed interest in her immediate family, including the cause of death for Michael Kennedy, her father and the son of Robert Francis Kennedy. Kyle’s own cause of death is not clear; she died at home six years after suffering a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed.
Kyle’s dad was only 39 when he died on a ski hill in Aspen, Colorado.
Michael Kennedy’s Cause of Death Was Head Injuries Following a Tragic Ski Accident
According to the Cape Cod Times, Michael Kennedy was engaging in a risky behavior with family members when he died. He was playing football while skiing, with a water bottle.
“He was pressing conventional limits by playing a game that Kennedys have engaged in for generations, football-on-skis,” the newspaper reported at the time of his death in December 1997.
Kennedy died after crashing into a tree on a mountain while “tossing around a small football with several relatives,” the Cape Cod Times reported, noting that he “lost control of one ski.” He was left with a “major head injury” and died that afternoon at a hospital, 90 minutes later.
However, according to the Spokesman-Review, a snow-packed water bottle was passing as a football and Kennedy was recording a video at the same time he was sking and catching the bottle.
However, an eyewitness told the Cape Cod Times that Michael was a talented skier.
“He was close enough to a tree on the left side that he couldn’t avoid it,” an eyewitness told the news site. “But it was not like he was skiing recklessly. Michael (was) the best skier, a tremendously gifted athlete who could ski downhill backwards and blindfolded.”
Michael Kennedy Was Among RFK & Ethel Kennedy’s 11 Kids
Robert Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, had 11 kids together, including Michael. He was not the first RFK son to die tragically; his brother David died of a drug overdose in 1984.
According to CNN, his death occurred after a slew of negative headlines about an alleged affair with the family babysitter, who was only 14 years old at the time. He announced that he was undergoing treatment for alcoholism and was never criminally charged after the babysitter declined to press charges.
He died in Aspen. The ski patrol had warned the Kennedy family that the hill was too dangerous, a source alleged to the Spokesman-Review.
The Aspen Ski Company, “which runs the Aspen Mountain resort where Kennedy died, said he collided with a tree about 4:15 p.m. (6:15 EST) while skiing with members of his family,” CNN reported.
“There was blood all over the snow,” Couri Hay, a New York City publicist on vacation, told the New York Daily News, according to the Spokesman-Review. “Several of the Kennedys were on their knees saying the Lord’s Prayer.”
Michael Kennedy was only 10-years-old when his father was assassinated at a Los Angeles hotel.
Related: Kyle Kennedy’s Health Struggles: She Died 6 Years After Tragic Spinal Cord Injury
